


Melinda helps

by Bacner



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, FitzSimmons - Freeform, Gen, InHumans (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Li Shi (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Melinda wants to fix things before they go canon-bad, Spoilers, Tacos, Terrigenesis crystals (Marvel Cinematic Universe), bonding despite intentions, from S7 to S2, may be continued in the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24563572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bacner/pseuds/Bacner
Summary: Melinda arrives during the events of S2 and talks to Grant and Kara before Coulson recruits them for the Arctic Hydra mission and things began to fall apart.
Relationships: Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie/Yo Yo Rodriguez, Lance Hunter/Bobbi Morse (Minor), Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Phil Coulson/Melinda May, Skye | Daisy Johnson/Grant Ward
Comments: 9
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beckysue_bonner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckysue_bonner/gifts), [bichita_36e](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bichita_36e/gifts), [joli_camarillo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joli_camarillo/gifts).



> Disclaimer: Marvel owns everyone.

Once upon a time, Kara Lynn Palamas was sitting at a table, nibbling – okay, eating properly – a taco, and considering it to be the best taco in the world ever since she got captured by Hydra, and she feeling grateful that Dr. Daniel Whitehall was dead, (supposedly, at least for now), and that she was free off Hydra and could be herself once again.   
True, she was not entirely certain just who she really was, or really could be, but she did not care. Anything was better than being enslaved by Hydra, Faustus method or otherwise.

“Excuse me, can I join you?” Melinda May, the Cavalry, appeared seemingly out of nowhere, as she joined the other woman. 

Kara blinked several times. “How did you find Grant and me?” she asked in a small voice, (while hating herself for that). “I thought that we were considered dead-“

“It’s complex, and the short story is that time travel was involved,” the older S.H.I.E.L.D. agent sighed simply.

“…Doesn’t Nick Fury unofficially forbids that? Or something along those lines?”

“Yes, and the more we time travelled, the more I became certain that he knew what he was talking about,” Melinda admitted. “Anyways, that’s not my point-“

“What is your point?” Kara glanced around, saw that Grant had joined them, and began to feel braver already. “Is it about your face? Listen, I am sorry, I had my personality ripped-out by its roots, I wasn’t exactly sane at that point in time, plus you did win-“

“Yes, and I’m sorry about how I treated you the first time, will treat you… never mind,” Melinda winced and looked askance at Grant who was keeping quiet, watching, but not in an exactly hostile way. “Listen, Coulson knows about you two living here-“

Now Grant looked in a much more hostile manner…before taking a visible effort, getting himself under control, and proclaiming:

“Right, we can work with that, Kara and I do have unfinished business with S.H.I.E.L.D.-“

“It won’t work, not how you plan it, however you’re planning it,” Melinda shook her head. “Between Morse going for the broke and me setting you to kill agent 33, it will all fall apart.”

…And now the hostility and the hurt were here for real. “Why?” the aforementioned agent 33 asked in a tiny voice. “Why would you do it? Because I wouldn’t apologize? Because you-“

“Yes,” Melinda exhaled, “something like that. Because as Daisy – or Skye – admitted a long time after today, when both of you were gone and quite a few other people, including Hunter and Morse, were also gone - what you, and especially Grant did, was wrong…but what we did to both of you? It wasn’t much better…”

“Why are you here?” Grant asked, with some hostility, but something else in his voice as well.

“I want to change the future, or the present, or the past – whatever,” Melinda exhaled. “I want for S.H.I.E.L.D. to succeed, for both of you not to die, for Coulson not to lose all of his morals and values, for us not to get involved with Holden Radcliffe and his issues, and Jeffrey Mace, and many other things…but I don’t know if I can achieve all of that-“

“But you don’t care, you’re just to achieve what you can, because it’s still better than doing nothing,” Grant finished flatly.

“Yes,” Melinda nodded, feeling an odd sense of relief appear from deep within her. “I do. In addition, you need to tell the truth about Kara’s situation to Coulson and to the others. Right now, it is S.H.I.E.L.D.’s best chance to become something more than just a bunch of mavericks travelling through time, trying to save Hydra in order to save S.H.I.E.L.D.-“

There was a pause as the other two people just stared at her. “Long story,” Melinda sighed. “Maybe I’ll tell it to the two of you someday. Right now though-“

A beep came outside – apparently, Coulson – the real Coulson – had arrived, alongside Deathlok.

“I need to hide,” Melinda exhaled. “I cannot face Coulson right now. Please, I need to hide-?”

And surprisingly to both of Grant and Kara, they cooperated…


	2. Melinda's helped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Melinda got to Kara and Grant - literally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: see the first chapter.

_Some time earlier..._

Melinda May sat in the Time Bus and was looking outside. There was nothing tangible, nothing coherent, just the time stream. For Melinda, one of whose skills had been piloting - the Bus, the quinjet, anything else and everything else in-between - this felt rather like a mockery of her happier times... with the team 'original Bus', as Skye would call it.

...These days, Skye was going around with the moniker of Daisy 'Quake' Johnson, and Melinda had to admit that she had liked the initial version better; but then again, she had liked everyone's initial version better, and right now? She felt as if she was surrounded by their distorted copies instead.

...Oh, she had no problems with Mack and Yo-Yo, especially Yo-Yo, who, in some ways, was almost like a more optimistic version of Melinda herself. Also - a more Catholic version, but unlike Daisy slash Skye, Melinda wasn't about to get involved in the questions of religion... where was she?

Oh yes, Coulson was dead - again - and replaced by an LMD of all things. (Frankly, after AIDA and Radcliffe you would think that a LMD was the last thing S.H.I.E.L.D. would go for, but here they all were). And the LMD wasn't very authentic either, at least not in Melinda's opinion. Skye was Daisy now, and as it was said before, Melinda had preferred the original version to the current one, and the same went for the FitzSimmons...probably. Melinda had never been as close with the two scientists, as she had been with Skye, Coulson, and Grant Ward, of all people.

"Ward, you're an asshole," Melinda muttered to no one in particular. "You had something great on the Bus - _we_ had something great on the Bus - and... _we_ blew it."

Unasked, Melinda's memory, (and the Cavalry had a specific relationship with this aspect of her self), ever so 'helpfully' pointed out that for a while things appeared to be fixable, until Melinda helped Lance Hunter trick Ward into killing agent 33, and then everything began to be maxed-up to 11, and in a bad way. Coulson fell in love with Rosalind Price of all people, (and Melinda had never fully trusted the head of ATCU for non-romantic reasons, BTW), Grant went a fully suicidal villain, and via his death had been able to bring Hive to Earth, while at the same time... something broke when Coulson murdered the younger man: it hadn't brought 'Roz' back, but the core Bus team was gone after that for real!..

"If only I could turn back time," Melinda muttered to herself, as the metaphorical Captain Obvious hit her in the face. "Oh, of course!" Melinda told herself as she walked open to one of the Time Bus's windows and opened them. They weren't supposed to be opened, but Melinda a) didn't care, and b), saw that they were sufficiently similar to the windows on the original Bus for her to figure out as to how to open them. Which she did. And then jumped outside.

The time stream claimed her.

/ / /

When Melinda opened her eyes, everything inside of her was off - she felt as if she had too many arms and legs, heads and boobs and everything else. Slowly, without her usual grace, she got onto her feet and looked around. She was inside some apartment - a bachelor's apartment, judging by her former experiences, (from her youth - don't ask), and as she looked in the mirror... she saw that she still looked like herself, which was good.

A door opened behind her; Melinda whirled around - and saw Lincoln Campbell, of all people. "And who are you?" the young InHuman asked, sparks subtly dancing around his hands and fingers. 

"I'm Melinda May," Melinda replied. "Can you give me the current time of month and day, please?"

Lincoln blinked but told her; Melinda grew thoughtful. Right now, agent 33 and Ward were in Mexico city already; Skye slash Daisy was taken to Li Shi, where someone - probably Lincoln himself - would help her master her InHuman powers; and Coulson has already teamed-up with Deathlok and the others to half-coerce half-bully Ward and agent 33 to help them out with Hydra.

Melinda then looked outside - a decisively not-Mexican landscape greeted her eyes. "Right," she exclaimed to Lincoln. "Do you have a car?"

"Yes."

"Is the tank fully loaded-?"

"Yes-?"

"Then I'm taking it - I need to get to Mexico and the Mexico city ASAP-!"

"You know how to drive?"

"Yes I know how to drive a car-!" Melinda snarled. The nerve-!

"You got a driver's license?"

"Of course I got a driver's license-!" Melinda trailed away, as she remembered that a) it had expired by now, (thanks to all the Bus-related missions and what-not), and b), since she was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, (or an ex-agent, whatever), the odds of her being stopped over for speeding, arrested and detained, (S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't Hydra, but it had never recovered to its' pre-Winter Soldier levels either), were very good indeed. "Right," she exhaled and looked at her interlocutor in a calmer, more rational way. "You've persuaded me. You can drive me to Mexico city instead - or at least to the US-Mexican border."

Lincoln opened his mouth.

"Please?" Melinda said quietly. "It's not for me personally, it's for S.H.I.E.L.D., and it'll affect many people, you included." (Which was true, seeing how Lincoln ended up being the one to blow-up Hive in space with a nuke...not that Melinda was going to tell Lincoln _that_ right now).

For several moments, both brief and long at the same time, she and Lincoln looked at each other, and then Lincoln must've seen _something_ in Melinda's gaze. "Fine," he exhaled, even as he took his car keys from a shelf. "Let's go. I actually should stay off the Teacher's radar for the next while anyways. Mexico city sounds as good a hide-out as any!"

Melinda blinked. "That's new," she told her interlocutor. "Why don't you want to go back?"

"Long story," Lincoln exhaled. "I'll explain on our journey."

"Sounds like a plan!" Melinda said brightly, (almost despite herself), and the duo left.


	3. The result of helping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened after the events in the first chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: see the first chapter.

Grant Ward was nervous. He hated that. The fact that Kara was there, looking even more nervous than how he felt, only made things worse. 

Ironically, it wasn’t because of Coulson that Grant felt that way - Coulson could turn on a dime, metaphorically speaking, but Ward had factored that aspect of the older man a while into his plans and knew that he could handle him. The issue of the price was another matter, but one that shouldn’t come up any time soon, hopefully.

No, what was bothering Ward was Melinda’s story about time travelling - it sounded unbelievable, but that was why he believed her: these days the unbelievable was routine, ergo the Cavalry was telling the truth... which meant that the first time around he would’ve failed... and Kara would have paid the price.

...Ever since the mess with John, team Bus, the GH formula and the rest, Grant hated when someone else paid the price for his mistakes, and-

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” Kara whispered softly to him. Grant flushed - he was handling everything just fine already - when agent Gonzales appeared on the scene. “You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes sir,” Kara said brightly - faux-brightly. “You May remember me? I was agent Palamas, one of the field medics-“

“Yes I do,” Gonzales still didn’t sound either friendly or hostile - they would take that. “However, your allegiance has shifted-“

“That’s not quite true sir - agent Morse has accidentally set me up in connection to her cover story in Hydra,” Kara replied, sounding much firmer than he she usually did now. “I don’t hold it against her, but if she would apologize, it would be better for everyone-“

“We’ll see,” Gonzales said curtly, and contacted Bobbi Morse - well, tried to. She didn’t respond. Things got worse from there.

/ / /

“All right, so let me get this straight - agent Morse decided to bail rather than to apologize? That’s nice,” Jemma’s sarcasm at the last phrase was especially evident. “Fitz may be correct - our agency is falling apart even without Hydra, and-“ she paused, looked askance at Ward and trailed away.

“Speaking of Hydra - how does that affect your Arctic plan, Coulson?” Gonzales didn’t sound very friendly either. “Even if agent Morse isn’t a plant of some sort, isn’t your plan compromised and your agents taken?”

“I don’t know - maybe I have a backup plan ready?” Coulson eyed Ward for some reason.

The man in question just wanted to tell him something, anything that wasn’t helpful, actually, but between Kara eying him in a painfully familiar manner and some equally painfully-familiar pains in his heart, he pulled out a burner phone instead. “I have a groundwork for you - maybe,” he told Coulson. “Anything else will be up to you.” He dialled a number. “Hello, Rodriguez?” He asked into the phone receiver. “How are you, and Kaminsky, and Hauer?” He asked in Spanish because of course he knew it. “Good, listen - me and your New friend Kara are at S.H.I.E.L.D. - do you still want out? Good, ‘cause that’s a load off my shoulders!” He paused. “Now, I’ll pass you onto S.H.I.E.L.D.’s current leadership, so what happens next is up to you!” And he passed on the phone to Coulson.

_TBC_


	4. Coulson edition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil and Melinda talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Marvel still owns everything.

…Phil Coulson was a man…who was having some personal issues. Hydra’s Arctic base had been nullified, the day was won, everything went according to his… general intent, and so everything was good. Then why was he feeling anything but-?

“That’s a good question, let’s talk through it,” Melinda May commented as she sat down next to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s current director. Technically, now Phil outranked her, but somehow that issue never came up. Maybe because Phil didn’t want Melinda to beat the crap out of him? Alterna-tively, even worse, break into tears?

“…Earth to Phil,” the woman in question, meanwhile, spoke carefully. “God, my future self was right – we all fell apart, and it had started with Ms. Price.”

“Whom?” Phil blinked despite his inner state.

Melinda rolled her eyes. “Of course you would snap out of it because of a woman. Apparently, in the future, the U.S. government would create something called the ATCU, and this Ms. Price woman would lead it, and you would have a relationship, and Ward would kill her, because we would’ve killed agent 33 by then, and things would go from bad to worse to worst.”

“…Why would we kill agent 33, for a start?” Coulson blinked. “And what do you mean, my future self?”

“I don’t trust my future self – she wasn’t quite all there, but what she told me makes sense. Apparently, S.H.I.E.L.D. would slip through our fingers until all that remained of it was a bunch of mavericks, living a time machine version of our Bus-“

“And us?” Phil asked quietly. 

“Well, I am still around. You are not. A LMD of all things replaced you-“

“Of course,” Phil chuckled bitterly, “can’t say that I’m surprised.”

“Excuse me?” Melinda blinked. “What are you-?”

“Mel, I am already something of a LMD, a replacement, after Loki had killed me back in New York,” Phil said without any of his trademark humor or good cheer. “I’m not that man, I’m a replacement-“

“So you got a new lease on life – literally,” Melinda did not back down, but tried to deflect – sort of. “People would kill to be in your shoes; John Garrett did-“

“And while I’m not him, I’m not me either,” Coulson refused to be deflected. “I am not that man, I am not the old field director of S.H.I.E.L.D.-“

“That’s not what the word on the street is, not after the Arctic,” Melinda pointed out delicately, (by her standards, anyhow). “So what’s with the long face?”

“It’s just genes?” Phil said brightly, before growing serious again. “And that is the issue, Mel – I am good at the field stuff, yes, but that’s not what S.H.I.E.L.D.’s director needs, not exactly, and Fury made me the director was all of his toys-“

“I doubt that they are all of his toys,” Melinda pointed wryly, “but yes, you hate being in charge. I know that I am-“

“You’ve been a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s bureaucracy since the Bahrain incident – is it your penance or are you just masochistic?” Coulson asked almost despite his common sense – Melinda had beat Ward, she could beat him – but Melinda did not hit him, fortunately, so he continued. “Because if it’s penance, then maybe it’s time that you ended it?”

Melinda stayed silent – very loudly silent – for a long time. “Maybe you’re right,” she said with a crooked, uncomfortable, but very genuine grin, (and it clearly physically hurt her). “Maybe we should both move forward together now?”

There was a pause, an uncomfortable and awkward pause as both of them realized that their discussion has went off in a weird direction.

“New topic?” Phil muttered to no one in particular.

“According to the future me, you married the FitzSimmons in the future?” Melinda said brightly.

The awkwardness was back…but this time it was punctuated by some noises from around the corner. Phil and Mel moved there, and found the couple in question, lying in a tangled and scrambled position on the floor.

The older couple just looked down at them. “You guys want to hang out with us on a double-date or something?” Jemma Simmons squeaked. 

Coulson and Melinda just looked down at them, then at each other and said nothing.


	5. Skye edition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grant and Skye actually have a heart to heart talk, and it's simply awkward!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: see the first chapter.

Skye – or was it Daisy? – was feeling nervous.

Oh, sure, there wasn’t any obvious reason for her to feel so, especially with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s latest defeat of Hydra, but there she was, feeling nervous, and all because of a stupid robot too-

“Would you believe me that I don’t mind you shooting me back in Puerto Rico?” the man in question muttered quietly, seeing how the two of them were sitting next to each other, (because of a card game, actually). 

“Yes, no, maybe,” Skye looked away. “Why is it, how is it, that every time I try to adapt to what life throws me, the rules change?”

“Good luck, I’ve been thinking over the same question throughout a large part of my life and am coming up blank,” Ward shrugged. “Hence, the networking, I suppose, though I suspect that if I hadn’t joined S.H.I.E.L.D., I would’ve never developed it – instead, I would be a hermit some-where out there instead.”

“…Ok, I didn’t see this one coming,” Skye blinked. “But, seriously, a hermit? You think that Garrett-“

“Garrett got me into S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, everything,” Ward shrugged. “No him, no them, and no them, hello nature…” he trailed away. “I like nature, you know? I like nature and animals better than people… better than most people, anyhow…”

“That I believe,” Skye muttered, “but now what? Things will not be forgiven-“

“-So, we just most on-“

“-They won’t be forgotten-“

“-We’ll figure it into the equation-“

“-are you trying to piss me off?”

“-maybe,” Ward shrugged. “Is it working?”

“I don’t know,” Skye muttered. “DC and May and their new-old friends want to talk to my parents and the rest of my people, and to Index them, but that’ll never happen-“

“No, but for the moment there’s some leeway, as the FitzSimmons have left with Phil and Mel,” Ward said brightly.

Skye glared.

Ward shrugged. “Skye, listen. Just because your new family consists mainly of civilians, doesn’t mean that they’re peaceful, yes?”

Skye looked at him with one of her more usual looks – that of ultimate annoyance with her S.O. 

“Good, this is what I am going for,” the man in question nodded. “Now, Skye, you still haven’t had any missions that gone wrong as in chased by an angry civilian mob, now did you?”

“No, but I was chased by S.H.I.E.L.D., after DC tried to hide me in Dr. Banner’s old hideout,” Skye muttered. “Wasn’t much fun. Is Indexing actually necessary, to begin with?”

“I’ve no idea – never did it,” Ward shrugged. “S.H.I.E.L.D. was one big anthill of people, true, but agents within it did specialize in various fields of study,” he gave Skye a look. Skye, who had turned decidedly unamused at the mention of ‘fields of study’ so much, that Ward decided to give her a pass. “The point is, I don’t really know how the process in question works or why is it necessary, aside from the basic fact of providing agents with information about this or another gifted person who may decide to go berserk for this or another reason-“

“The InHumans of Li Shi would never go berserk,” Skye said solemnly, “I just know it!”

“Skye, you’re a dreamer, just as Coulson is,” Ward looked away. “And a dreamer got to have a dream, because otherwise? It’s a life not worth living in particular!”

Skye thought this over and rubbed her cheek against Ward’s, who colored and tightly hugged her around the waist. The couple grew silent as both contemplated their future. Whether or not they would get together, (and whether that was an ‘if’ or a ‘when’ was still up in the air for grabs), nothing was written for them in stone; rather, it was written in wind and water, and that just sucked.

“I don’t know if I love you,” Skye muttered, “only I do.”

“Likewise,” Grant muttered as he grimaced and looked around – but Kara Palamas was not around.

…Actually, she was, and upon catching Grant’s eyes, she actually gave him a thumbs-up gesture. Well, all right then, Grant was certainly completely confused. “What do we do now?”

“I am not entirely certain,” Grant admitted. “Talk to Melinda and ask her what did her future self told her-“

“Nothing good, the S.H.I.E.L.D.-InHumans’ talks broke down very quickly, and in her opinion, it was S.H.I.E.L.D.’s worst and bloodiest failure since Hydra’s attempt to take over everything,” Lincoln Campbell commented from his position at the card table. “Both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Li Shi losses were bad.”

Both Grant and Skye blinked. “So, uh, what do we do now?” Skye muttered quietly. “Also, uh-“

“No, I die later, saving Earth from a very old entity, blowing it up in space with a nuke,” Lincoln grimaced. “You people want to change the future? I want to be in!”

“I think that I like the way you think,” Grant nodded slowly. “Why don’t you start explaining to us as to why Li Shi is going to be so hostile to us and we’ll go on from there?”

Lincoln nodded, the words of the future Melinda May’s admittance of her version of the Bahrain incident still fresh in his mind and ears…


	6. Unexpected developments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some more unexpected developments in this timeline...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: see previous chapter.

…Bobbi Morse was found in one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s base closets, appropriately enough, as she just huddled there, hiding for no good reason.

“Last time I saw her in such a poor state, it was back at the Hub, when Fury got Hill to sing Yaki-Da’s ‘I Saw You Dancing’,” Lance commented to no one in particular, (and more specifically, Kara and Lincoln were flanking him, as they have aided him in his search). “Bob, are you spying for Hydra or are just crazy? Because I can tell you, I am honestly not sure as to which one is worse-“

Bobbi blew her nose. Loudly. “I’m, uh, sorry,” she told agent 33, not sounding very sincere. “Kara, I really am-“

“Stop,” Kara’s own nose twitched. “For a human, this would be quite insulting, but since you’re actually a hell-beast, that’s ok-“

“Wait, you know that she’s one?”

“Yes, and so does agent Ward, and a few other people, I think,” Kara shrugged, “come on, it’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Nothing stays truly secret here for long!”

“Point,” Lance muttered, as he eyed Lincoln, and noticed that the InHuman man was eying him back. “And what’s your take on it?”

“We’ve seen hell-beasts in Li Shi and elsewhere, in other InHuman communities,” Lincoln re-plied, in a vaguer tone than the one he had used before. “They don’t like other sentient beings as a race. You sure that your partner won’t eat you live-?”

“No, but I love her all the same,” Lance began, when Bobbi interrupted him by beginning to wail loudly, as if she was stuck in a tree with no way down.

(Yes, this sort of thing did happen to some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but Morse had been experienced enough not to experience it, really!)

Lance, for his part, fell silent and just stared at the other two. “I didn’t mean to break her this time, really!” he said, sounding helpless for a change. 

“Of course you didn’t,” Kara Palamas just shook her head and eyed Lance. “Let’s get her to the medical wing. Hopefully, the FitzSimmons are there already, back from their double-date or whatever…”

Lincoln’s look was sceptical, but he did not argue either.

/ / /

The negotiations were going on poorly, as Jiaying had abruptly broke a Terrigenesis crystal, enveloping Gonzales’ in a sheath of stone, before turning her head back and laughing maniacally. 

And then… the stone cracked, revealing a Gonzales who was much more physically fit and healthy than the original version had been.

“I say, I must say, that this InHuman therapy of yours is very good – sorry about the earlier misunderstanding,” he rumbled in a newer, clearer, healthier voice, as he nonchalantly hugged the InHumans’ leader around her waist. “Shall we continue our negotiations?” he wagged his eyebrows suggestively as well.

“Ah, um,” Jiaying looked around, currently really reminiscent of her daughter in mannerisms, (especially whenever Skye – or – Daisy was caught flat-footed). She looked at the concealed microphone in the wall. “Someone help!” she lip-synched into it.

At the other end of the microphone, Cal Zabo, (both of Skye’s parents have come to the negotia-tions with S.H.I.E.L.D.), glared at Coulson in a very hostile way. “You S.H.I.E.L.D. agents!” he snapped. 

“What did I do this time?” Coulson snapped, even as May moved nonchalantly between the two – just in case.

“It’s complex,” Skye, (who was also there, alongside Ward, cough), rubbed her own nose. “I think that some of the InHumans think that you might be my father instead?”

Both Coulson and Melinda face-palmed. “I can explain everything!” Coulson said brightly. “Fury meddled! It’s his fault!”

Melinda sighed, and before things could escalate further, grabbed both him and Cal Zabo by ears, surprising them into submission. “We’ll discuss Fury later; let’s go and help Ms. Zabo first,” she told them, as she let them away, muttering something in Chinese under her breath.

Skye and Grant both just winced, but said nothing.


	7. Mack and Yo-Yo edition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mack and Yo-Yo meet in this universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Marvel still owns everyone.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Mackenzie, better known as Mack, was not in a good mood. Rather, he was tired. Between participating in S.H.I.E.L.D. in fighting, storming an Arctic Hydra base, and the latest InHuman mess, he just wanted to go to his bed in the S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, (the current version, cough), and go to sleep. 

…Sadly, this didn’t appear to be happening soon, for as soon as Mack lay down, (he had turned the light off first and didn’t change, because, hello, it was his own bedroom and all), his bed squealed and erupted into a flurry of kicks and punches, hard enough, and fast enough, for Mack to jump back out of it. 

“Do you mind?” the woman snapped as she also got out of the bed – in her defence, Mack was bigger and heavier than she was by a large margin, and so she did get squished, at least for a brief while. “I was here first!” she added, glaring at him…before taking another look at him.

“Yes, well, this is my room, my bed, everything,” Mack said crossly, as he looked down at his interlocutrix, (literally, given their height difference), “and who are you exactly?”

“Elena Rodriguez, but my friends call me Yo-Yo,” the woman snapped, in English, but with a notable Latin American accent. “Didn’t agent Ward tell you about me and the others?”

“Oh, you’re that Rodriguez, with whom he had spoken on the burner phone?” Mack blinked as he gave her another look, a more professional one, this time. “Hah…”

“Yes, well,” the woman – Yo-Yo - crossed her arms over her chest and looked away first. “How’s Kara Palamas doing, anyhow?”

“Fine, judging by what I’ve heard earlier today,” Mack muttered. “How do you know her-?”

“We were friends for a long while in the past, before it was revealed that she was S.H.I.E.L.D., and I… was not.”

“Why were you-?” Mack blinked.

“My father,” Yo-Yo shivered. “He’s not a good man, almost as bad as Brock Rumlow, you know? Crossbones? My father is like that, only he can fly-“

“Yes, well, you’re with us now, as is the rest of the team,” Mack said gruffly, becoming belated-ly aware that he was rubbing Yo-Yo across her shoulders; in his defence, she was shivering.

“…Thank you,” Yo-Yo looked askance at him, “but my point is that if it wasn’t for Morse and Rumlow, I would’ve been able to smuggle Palamas out of the Hydra HQ before Dr. Whitehall had his way with her – instead, I barely ended up not being subjected to the Faustus method alongside her, and the Faustus method is the worst…” she trailed away as both she and Mack sat down side by side onto his bed. “Anyways, what is your story? Why are you in S.H.I.E.L.D.? For the usual reasons or-?”

“Hard to say,” Mack muttered. “I got a S.H.I.E.L.D. grant, and joined one of its’ academies – not the main one, not the Academy, but still. For a while, I was just a face in the crowd, nothing fancy, working on my engineering scholarship, and so on, until a S.H.I.E.L.D. recruiter approached me directly, and told me indirectly that students who got into S.H.I.E.L.D. via grants and such-like, are usually expected to join S.H.I.E.L.D. after graduating as well. I never had anything against this, or S.H.I.E.L.D. in general, but I did point out that I was in engineering, so did S.H.I.E.L.D. have a place for me? The recruiter smiled and promised me that S.H.I.E.L.D. did, so my major became ship engineering, and I’ve ended up in S.H.I.E.L.D’s navy-“

“S.H.I.E.L.D. had its’ own navy?” Yo-Yo blinked, her accented English sounding especially cute right now.

“Yes, and agent Gonzales was in charge of it,” Mack sighed, “and once it was formidable, and right now it’s down only to the Iliad…and the other ship, one that Coulson’s people have seized with the help of me and Morse…” he trailed away, looking blankly in the distance, thinking about comrades lost and the like.

“Fair enough and it’s your room,” Yo-Yo sighed herself, as she slapped her hands against her legs and got up, however reluctantly. 

“No, wait, you can stay!” Mack spoke almost before he had a coherent thought in his head. 

Yo-Yo immediately stopped, (cough), and gave Mack a truly smoldering look. “Really?” she asked wryly.

“Mmm,” Mack shrugged nonchalantly, but did not argue.

…And nine months later, the little Hope was born, but that was another story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Marvel comics, Yo-Yo's father is called the Griffin, and he's a villain associated with Hydra. Since it's unlikely that we'll see any of her family in the live-action Marvel universe, I'm sticking with this story here.


	8. Conclusion (The FitzSimmons)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The conclusion of the story, (starring the FitzSimmons, and also Grant and Skye).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Marvel owns everyone.

“I got to admit,” Fitz muttered to Simmons, as the two of them were standing in the HQ’s kitchen, preparing – well, helping to prepare – dinner and supper for tonight. Usually, the FitzSimmons were not allowed in the kitchen, because Fitz actually had problems with anything organic, (and especially anything plant-related, cough, killing an unkillable experimental cactus, cough), and Simmons was not much better, but they were being supervised. 

…To add insult to injury, their supervisors were Grant and Skye, (or was it Daisy?), of all people, hence Fitz’s statement in the previous paragraph.

“I got to admit,” Fitz gamely continued, “that I expected to do something different today. May-be work on the Iliad’s Monolith, or something along those lines, not make a meal!”

“Frankly, that goes for all of us – if Simmons, and especially you, worked on the Iliad’s Mono-lith, or something along those lines, not make a meal,” Skye brightly agreed. “I mean, remember when I was just settling on the Bus and yet somehow I was already able to trick you in believing that the Bus’s waste disposal unit was its’ brand-new bio toilet?”

“May managed to stop me just in time, before I did something irreversible,” Fitz glared, even as the other two people present apparently ignored their banter. “You know, for a great friend…” he shook, visibly collecting himself, and changed the topic abruptly: “So, do you believe the story of Lincoln’s about the May from the future coming to set all of this in motion?”

“The one where you two get married by Coulson and have children and grandchildren?” Skye asked wryly.

“Yes,” Fitz said flatly, before thawing out, slightly. “Listen, I’m neither stupid nor ungrateful, but, but, it’s sounds like something wonderful-“

“And you don’t do wonderful, you do dramatic instead,” Grant spoke for the first time, ignoring Daisy’s punch to his side. 

“Yes! No! Maybe! And whose fault is that?” Fitz yelped.

“Oh Fitz,” Jemma sighed. “Can’t you let it go?”

“Look who’s talking,” Fitz muttered, “though the phrase is kind of catchy. Maybe we can put into a movie or something?”

There was a pause. “What kind of a movie?” Daisy asked brightly. The others just stared at her. “Sorry,” she backpedalled, but only slightly. “But we at Rising Tide have done some podfics between each other for fun, sometimes quite big ones.” She paused and added, with even more hesitation. “You people know what a podfic is, right?”

“Yes, Daisy, we do,” Jemma rolled her eyes. “What kind of podfic?”

“Anything that we wanted to…not that it was very often,” she added in an exaggeratedly belated manner to Ward’s benefit. “We at the Rising Tide were serious people with serious business-“

“Yes, Skye, I remember,” Grant said brightly, as he leaned down, (because of height difference, let us be honest, it is there), and kissed her. Skye went pink, grabbed Grant by the collar and pulled him down, behind a counter. The noises that came from there were self-explanatory, too.

The FitzSimmons just looked at each other. “Now what?” Jemma muttered crossly.

“Well, according to the story from the future I really like to mount your shapely flanks-“

“I’m going to punch you there Leo,” Jemma went red.

“-Want to get married first instead?” Leo switched gears with a flourish.

“Yes!” Jemma snapped almost on autopilot.

Leo immediately produced a box in a ring. Jemma went pink and fainted. Right on top of Fitz. He did not mind exactly, but still. “This isn’t how I expected it to go,” he muttered to no one in particular.

Not too surprisingly, he received no reply.

The end (of the story).

**Author's Note:**

> Melinda and Lincoln got along well enough in the canon AoS' S3, so this isn't too OOC either.


End file.
